About the Angry Birds 2 Arena

[angrynerds2]

The arena ticket is not lost after stopping the app, only the winning streak.

[heybert17]

I just had an opponent get over 900,000 on room one with a level 6 bird, ridiculous. Then on my next match my first 2 birds bounced off the structure with no damage, needless to say I am about done for the day.

[heybert17]

Another reason I am done after I use all my gems/spells.

Went into the Arena tonight, collected my 150 for coming in 2nd.

When I got there the leader board was 1st-11 points, 2nd-6 points and the rest of us had 0.

I played the 1st round and got 8 points, when I came back out that was good for 5th place. There were 3 new people in my league and the top scores were now 42-36-17. None of these people were in my league before I played the 1st round.

[heybert17]

And today, 3 more new players in my League, all cutesy bird names, leaving me in the dust. I have had it with this junk.

[angrynerds2]

I think I quit the arena.
It sucks to restart that game permanently because of that high ranked guys and spell card clowns. That takes too much time, especially with bad Internet connection.

[David Martin]

It just dawned on me yesterday that you can force quit the app after winning an arena match, retain the stars from that victory and your winning streak so far, and also get back any spells you used since you last logged into the Arena. This is essentially a loophole that allows players to use all 5 spells every single time they pay the Arena, without earning them as rewards within the game or paying for them.

For example, I currently have a Duck and Chili spell that I won from a DC. I can use both in an Arena match, win that match, then force quit and play another Arena match with those same two spells. Then I can go play the regular game for a while (so long as I do not exit out of the Arena back to the map, but instead restart the app to get there), and as long as I don’t use those spells elsewhere, I’ll continue to have them available for Arena matches. Along the way, let’s say over time I acquire a Blizzard, a Pig Inflater, and a Mighty Eagle. I could then use those repeatedly in the Arena. There wouldn’t even be much of a point to having more than one of any spell in my arsenal.

Now I should point out that if you open a treasure chest as a reward for completing match #3 or #6 in a streak, and it contains a spell, and you force quit after that, you won’t retain the new spell. It basically resets your spells back to the start of your last Arena match. You also can’t use this trick to get back a used Arena ticket. It correctly takes one away from you as soon as you agree to start the match, even if you force quit during or after the match. (Force quitting before you start the match is still a nice way to take a mulligan when you get a ridiculous opponent on match #1 in a streak, though.)

I don’t mean to encourage such an obvious exploit that will make the game more unfair for anyone who hasn’t stumbled across it yet. I bring it up because Rovio needs to acknowledge it and fix it, and once they’ve done that, stop matching us up against performances prior to the fix.

I honestly feel that any match-up shouldn’t take spells into account – only the scores earned by the player’s birds during the match. However, that might make it too easy to defeat any opponent just by using a few spells. So I’m not sure of a better way to balance things, but we’ve got to be able to improve on the broken system we have now.

[bossywings]

Well Rovio, you´ve done it again! I´ve won my leage in the arena at least 5 times without getting the gems. You´ve got to fix this! Please! I love playing the game but this is killing my mood about playing the arena. Fix it!!

[heybert17]

I think I have figured out there game. since I started using gems more to win Arena battles I am losing almost every battle within about 10,000 points. Just close enough that I now using 60 gems will get me the win easily.

I have lost so many first round battles to players with birds I should beat easily I really think the algorithm of this game is very complex and really knows how to get your gems/spells i.e money.

But it did accomplish one thing, I have lost almost all desire to play the Arena at all and have been focusing on the main game more.

[cognitive]

(conspiracy mode on)

I agree with the above. I notice that either matches are ridiculously close, or blowouts (rarely to my advantage). The typical ‘match’ is either with someone who’s (a) basically Mr. Perfect with no spells, able to put up 800k points per bird easily even at low levels or (b) some 5-spell miracle, sometimes clueless, but more often than not good.

To win against (a) you need to play a perfect game yourself, with no immortal micro-pigs. You may win with a 5 or 6. Against (b) if it’s a clueless player you may actually win against 5 spells, I’ve won a number. But usually (b) is a blow-out.

Whatever you do, don’t use gems to extend play. Lose, fine. This is a recent phenomenon, I used to be able to get 9’s and 10’s on a regular basis before.

(super conspiracy theory mode on)

Why is it that when I play my last or video bird, my destruct-o-meter is near always ALMOST full, but not full enough to give me another bird?

How is it that opponents manage to put up miracle numbers, especially at the end of the game?

Why is it that the idiotic “play too soon after a loss using a ticket and you’ll get a 5 spell guy” behavior has not been fixed?

Why is it that the even more idiotic “streak=3 gets you a vastly better opponent, usually with 5 spells” behavior has not been fixed?

Come on, Rovio… These are not rocket science level bugs…

[angrynerds2]

@cognitive: Yes, I’ve noticed these things, too.
Sometimes I get an extra bird with video and lose only by a couple of points, because destructometer doesn’t fill up, bird is useless (blues against stones) or I have to use the bird for a fooking indestructable mini pig.

[DDeck]

Still have the UI bug that doesn’t register any taps on the screen when paused (except it thinks any tap is for the ad in the middle). So you can view the same ad over and over or just force quit and lose the match, any spells you brought in, any gems you might have used, and any arena ticket.

Oh and @hank, here is another level where the immortal micropig can get stuck. It would be more efficient to alter survivability so they can’t get flung all over the board and still survive. Like I said before, any opening anywhere on the board can accommodate one of the suckers.

View post on imgur.com

[Rovio_Hank]

Hey Flingers!

While I understand your frustration as a competitive gamer myself, I’ll still try to convince you that we’re not doing shady business in the Arena. I’m sure I will never be able to convince all of you, but that’s life. When you’re in a game against another player, no variables are used to change the outcome of anything – the core mechanics are untouched. It might feel like some things always happen when you’re X% of a score or with X birds left, but it’s just a coincidence.

Personally I’d like it if the game had real nicknames, so you could actually see that sometimes the player you call a cheater is just a fellow Nest -player who had a good run. This is unfortunately something we had to cut for the initial Arena implementation because of legal reasons, hence the “cutesy bird names”. We’ll see if we can re-visit that in the upcoming update. How would you guys feel about that? Worth it or just meh?

@sambeaver I can happily tell you that the new update, with some new really cool features, will be out tomorrow Thursday (if all goes as planned)! If you guys have issues that Customer Support can’t help you with, you could try to send me a private message on here and I’ll see if I can help you in any way.

@ddeck
Could you send me a private message with step by step instructions to how and when you get this UI error? This will greatly help us solve, thank you!

The level you showed should be fixed in the next update (tomorrow?), thank you!

I’m trying to not repeat myself all too much, but I can also assure all of you that the matchmaking will get some changes soon enough. We’re low on staff at the moment to the point where there are features/tasks (backend) that can’t be done by just anyone. So it takes a bit longer than we’d like.

I’m eager to hear your reactions for the update tomorrow. Take care!
/Hank

[cognitive]

Hank, maybe my 31 years of software development and 45 years of gaming (Pong!) are showing, but there is apparent manipulation of some circumstances that is not explainable by basic probability theory.

No scoring transparency. I routinely see lower ranked birds than mine score way more points in the same room, especially towards the end. If a level 8 bird cleans the room in the best possible way, and the opponent’s level 6 bird does it just as well and outscores me by 200k-300k points…

No destruct-o-meter transparency. There are many instances where towards the end the opponents score multiple destruct-o-meter birds in a flash. Related to previous.

Lack of randomness in opponent picks. Play using tickets and lose a couple rounds- this all but guarantees a 5 spell guy when you start a new streak. Very repeatable.

Impossible matchup odds as streaks grow longer. At streaks > 3, it is not uncommon to encounter an opponent who has all birds 1 level higher, and often a bird or two 2 levels higher. streak 1 and 2 are reasonably well matched (subject to previous observation). Oftenimes, spells are added just for extra fun.

Opponent perfection. Back in the good old days of no tickets, it was common to play someone just as bad as we are (level 65, all 7’s and one 8). Since the last update, getting an opponent to make ONE mistake is rare. Are we picking the cream of the crop?

Lead bouncing – I have heard other people complain about being bounced around. This morning I was bounced from my league (#2, 225 points, a couple of players were competitive) to the Apathy league, where 225 points is twice the score of the second guy :). Not bad for a change but still…

I do not believe most of the above are due to programming bugs.

[ABeggerToo]

Just to clarify @hank, were the old names like Red #12345 replaced with what we now see as ‘Dash Buttslam?’ Does Dash see him name as Buttslam or as Red #12345?

I always seem to have about 8 such names (seeming to come from a total of 20 different names) in my group each week. Are the names specific to one player, or do the names rotate through different players whom havwn’t connected through Facebook?

I am hoping the update will soothe many of the hard feelings and distrust which have developed.

[Anonymous]

@abeggertoo Same here. I’ve had Buzz Mcfly, Nifty Baconbuster and a few other names that I can’t remember :P, for over 5 weeks in a row. This week I finally have new people though.

[cognitive]

Not to worry. I alternate between Red#12345 and my real name off Facebook. I have a very unique name but I think it only shows first name to others, right?

[ABeggerToo]

@cognitive I was assuming the double-names are the cutesy names as the Facebook names are just first names. I created a game-play account which Showa as ABegger and all the other Facebook avatars are single names. Most of the double names are puns. I do wonder if Dash Buttslam is perhaps a translation issue as it seems somewhat more potentially contentious than the Oinks, Porkys, and Babes.

[CaptSternn]

Begger, the names are/was an option. I was Bomb #59701 for ages, then an option to have a name. I was offered Blast Sparrow (Captain Blast Sparrow, for any that ask). I accepted it. I see myself as Blast Sparrow now. Don’t know if I could return to Bomb #59701 if I wanted. Option doesn’t seem to be there. Would kind of like to return to the old name. Mr. Hank has mentioned that we might be able to choose a name without facebook.

Update supposed to be coming out tomorrow. Looking forward to it. Hope it makes the arena better and I could be a regular here again. Maybe see some old faces if that happens. Or maybe they are gone for good. I don’t even try to place in the arena now. Just play for fun and occasionally get a few stars.

And get the gems every half hour. Collecting gems is my thing right now. Well, that and … but hopefully that will be fixed tomorrow. Not sure what effect it will have on me. But whatever it does, it will be worth it if it makes the game better.

[Pappybear]

@Hank: Get rid of the spells in the Arena. 7 birds and that’s it. No video to get an extra bird at the end. Match players based on bird levels added together. Example: I have 6 level 9 birds and 1 level 10. 9+9+9+9+9+9+10=64 give me an opponent equal to 64 or less/more by 2 points. As others have pointed out the system is rigged and you are correct you will never convince us otherwise. If it wasn’t as you claim I would not get opponents with all level 10, 11 or 12 birds, or opponents with all spells when I have none.

I really don’t get Rovios stance on this game. I for one would rather you just admit you are out to fleece customers and make money then not resolve issues and make lame excuses. Especially since the same issues have been repored over and over and have existed since day one.

PB……….

[Rovio_Hank]

@cognitive

The behaviors you initially explain sounds like either a bug or a cheater to me. I’m just guessing here, but it could be a bug where the game doesn’t show the correct amount of birds used by the opponent. If not, it could sadly be a cheater who managed to manipulate their score. If a level 6 bird clears a room by itself and gets scores close to a million, something isn’t right.

Spell usage went up a lot with the addition of the Arena Winning Streak. This isn’t something we planned for, it’s simply an effect of competitive players stacked against each other. We are however discussing internally how we should handle spells (@pappybear) and the impact it has on the Arena.

As stated before, you will face harder opponents the further into a Winning Streak you get. We are however not fully satisfied with the implementation of this and it will change soon enough. If you try out the new update released today you might realize there’s a few new parameters we need to consider when we test new values.

When it comes to always facing “perfect runs” as you guys have described it, I tried to dig a bit deeper. This is something that concerned me after reading on Nest and I’ve personally gone through match making, set up meetings and discussed with our lead programmers to make sure the runs we save are actually random and not cherry picked in any way. We haven’t been able to find anything indicating that only good runs would get saved. I think this is something more frequently occurring in the high leagues where many of you play, as the opponents simply are higher skilled.

Hopefully the League Bouncing is now fixed that the new update is live. Please report your findings if that’s not the case.

@abeggertoo

The cutesy names is something we allowed all players (not connected to Facebook) to choose from if they liked it. Once they’ve found a name they like, that’s the name that will show for the opponents. It does not change randomly for other players after being chosen.

Try out the update and give us your feedback!

Thank you guys, have fun playing the new update!
/Hank

[Djangosmum]

Following today’s update, thought I’d take another look at the Arena, having stopped playing a few weeks ago due to it’s numerous issues.
Resumed on the second stage of the the winning streak, only to be confronted with a player who already had 5 of the new party hats, within hours of them being introduced today!
I won 30 black pearls earlier in the Daily Challenge, but it shows as 120 for some reason. How many do you need to gain per hat?

[Nevermind]

@djangosmum There was an update? What’s new? The only thing that changed for me is that when I try to enter the arena I am forced out of the app.

[Nevermind]

My bad. Didn’t update automatically like it usually does.

[Jon S]

@deaftalk

New about the update

1) As always, 20 more levels in the main game…Hamburg in Cobalt Plateau. 661-681 they have a ring of fire which powers up your birds
2) They added a chance to open 22 Premium treasures – must spend 1600 gems
3) Daily Quests – Rewards you 4 and 15 gems respectively for completing Level 1 and 2 for the DC
4) Celebrating their 1 year…you have a chance to enter to win a silver plush

Arena

5) As predicted…Level 13 Elder Emerald is available. You need 2600 feathers to level up..Not even hours into the new update, streak 3 I faced a player with ALL level 13 birds

6) They added “pearls” which can be won in the arena or daily challenges. If you buy them, you can double or triple your bird score. They range from 20-100 pearls each

[kedik22]

Hi.

Anyone.
What are the pearls for?
And haw do you spend them?
Are they for buying only hats and dressing up your birds?
Regards.